A New Australian Tuba

[Ken Herrick]

The Ole girl is relaxing, soaking up some Aussie warmth before getting her make-over in the new year. The shippping went very well with absolutely no damage. Cost was very reasonable, especially considering "personalised service" throughout the process. Anybody wanting to ship a tuba can take my recommendation about Consilidated International. I'll send full contact details to anybody wanting them.

The 186 will soon be joined by a King which Dan Shultz has ready for me to pick up. Very fine service from Dan. I'll post some pics later.

Then, to round out the 'stable ' will be a Martin Eb which Lee Stofer is working on and which I will finish off into a 5 valve 3+2 when I bring it out.

All three will have their own custom Altieri bags.

Schilke is making me a pair of custom mouthpieces which I should have along at Midwest.

I AM interested in obtaining some Mirafone valve linkages - even old clockwork which is what I suspect ingrid had originally. Someday I'll explain the name.. - if you have something let me know and I'll pay a reasonable price with payment and shipping made as easy as possible for the seller.

MIDWEST, CSO BRASS & PIZZA & BEER I'll be in Chitown 14& 15 December and it looks like I will have some spare concert tickets. Hope to meet up with a few of you.

The earlier post:


No, the Chinese have not moved to Oz and no, I'm not spending a few million setting up a tuba factory!!!

The old Mirafone 186CC which Chris Olka had listed for sale: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=41371

Has left Chris's home and is now on its way to the land of the boxing kangaroo.

I'd like to publicly thank Chris for his extraordinary help in making this possible.
He offered me a very good deal,and while at first was a bit apprehensive about shipping to Australia did not complain at all when I decided it was the way to go, rather than me picking it up. All I can say is - if you ever have reason to deal with Chris, you can do so with absolute confidence.

I have also had some great input and co-operation from Dan Schultz and Lee Stofer on this as well as my plans for getting the ole girl playing again.

The shipping, handled by Consolidators International is proceeding well and the cost, including pick up at Chris's home, shipping to Oz by air and customs clearance here, and full insurance has proven to be very simple with an absolute minimum of paperwork required AND came in at a very reasonable cost, especially considering it is travelling in a big ANVIL flight case.

Lee has organised a nice Altieri bag for it to get around in here. Another very good person to deal with.

My plan is to spend all the time it takes to get it back together with some experimenting on 4th valve circuit layout to give an easily accessible tuning slide and with the bracing. It will come out a "custom" job. Absolute minimum polishing - most likely all hand work. I thought about adding a 5th valve, but with the way I plan to set up the first valve slide so it has a real long and easy pull - virtually like a trombone slide for workability and a 4th slide the same and reachable I don't think a fifth would add much and I will retain the true playing characteristics which can be impaired by adding a 5th. I'm getting a fibre optic bore scope to be able to see each join as I go and make sure everything fits perfectly and cleanly. Estimated time is likely 200 hours.

I'll post some updates here as I go along.

I'm also looking forward to getting my King 2041 from Dan in the next couple months. A clean looking horn to start with, getting an Andersons valve job right now, then a few mods and such.
Dan is another great guy to deal with.

I'll be in the Chicago and downstate area from late November until just before Christmas and plan to get to Midwest, the CSO Brass concert, Ginos pizza, Berghoffs and a few other places as well as visit Dan and Lee and hopefully Carol Phillips. Hope to meet a few of you there.

[The Big Ben]

Big fun! I saw that tuba at SEATEC last year and it looked like an interesting project. Far outside of my skill set and it wouldn't have been that good of a deal if I had someone put it together. But, you have some definite ideas of what you want so I hope it comes out! Do post photos as you work!

[Chris Olka]

Thanks for the kind words and I hope you enjoy the tuba Ken!
Chris Olka
Seattle Symphony
Seattle Opera

[Ken Herrick]

Silly me - thought an EDIT would get us back on page one - maybe this will.